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In one's later years, one enters a secondary adolescence followed by a second childhood. One often becomes so dependent on life support systems that one may as well be in the womb again. This seems to be acknowledged by some burial customs, where the corpse is placed in a foetal position before burial.
So,
this could be followed through more literally. On reaching the stage of being totally reliant upon machines to survive, one should be placed in a foetal position, immersed in an artificial amniotic fluid and placed in a hollow silicone ball, hence ending one's days in an artificial analogue of one's life before birth. Atrophy would shrink the muscles and organs, though not to the extent of making the body disappear entirely, so there would even be some reverse growth.
One snag is the concept of "where there's life, there's hope".
'Counter-Clock World' by Philip K. Dick
http://www.amazon.c...d=1263217880&sr=8-1
Not really the same idea but similar in concept. [DrBob, Jan 11 2010]
[link]
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Ancient stone cairns might have been an attempt at
this kind of thing - a stone pregnant belly, a small
chamber, etc - but without the life support and
other technological age touches you suggest. |
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Yes, i'm sure it has a precedent but it's now possible to bring it closer to reality in a ceremonial sense, and as things are, Western rites of passage haven't gone that way. |
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I've been trying to get back in for most of my adult
life. |
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Sometimes i wonder how different our cultures would be if we were oviparous. |
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//if we were oviparous// "You can't make an hamlet without breaking some eggs" |
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What are you a masochist or something, 19thly.
Opening up that can of awful, fetid worms here? I'll be
your shield...I'll hold your hand...I'll, well, I'll run the
other way screaming, that's what'll do, and waving my
white flag as I go... |
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Thanks, [blissmiss], maybe the opportunity will arise one day. |
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There are two reasons why this occurred to me this morning apart from me being king of the inappropriate comment. One was that it's really freezing here right now and hard to get out of bed. The other is that i have one hell of a toothache and it's making me delirious. |
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It's odd though. Being endothermic and viviparous, we want to stay under duvets in winter and then come to identify them with wombs. Were we to reproduce by budding and be "cold-blooded", we'd have a whole different set of hang-ups. As it stands, we have this set. Or I do, anyway. |
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Remembers a Whose Line is it Anyway scene: |
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Ryan: "We all die the way we were born - in bed with a beautiful woman." |
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Someone else: "But we don't die like that..." |
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Ryan: "You do if you plan it right." |
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You could make the life support system into a giant female android if you like. |
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The grave is sort of like a womb... |
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A mind womb to stimulate up, preparing for the great leap, as body the womb does the recycling. |
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//A mind womb to stimulate up, preparing for the great leap,
as body the womb does the recycling// |
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[wjt] are you the one who wrote that "Lorem ipsum" text that
looks like it should mean something? |
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I probably could have done it, I don't know Latin, but sadly a bit young. |
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A mind womb to stimulate the wake up, preparing for the great leap, as a body womb does the recycling. Slightly better? |
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Not really, but it does have a sort of James Joyce-like quality that nicely mingles affectation, verbosity and incomprehensibility (i.e. it's rubbish). |
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Or maybe it's William, not James ... |
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Gynæcoid, Shirley. Like "gynæcologist". |
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[pertinax] Does a simple precis get you everywhere? I suppose everyone needs a single starting stepping stone. |
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I'd love to answer, [wjt], but I have no idea what you're asking for. |
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